Newburgh kids thrive in SUNY summer science program

NEWBURGH — About 50 Newburgh elementary and middle school students spent their Monday morning sitting in bright shiny classrooms at SUNY Orange's Tower Building, working on science projects.

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By Pauline Liu

recordonline.com

By Pauline Liu

Posted Jul. 23, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Pauline Liu

Posted Jul. 23, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

NEWBURGH — About 50 Newburgh elementary and middle school students spent their Monday morning sitting in bright shiny classrooms at SUNY Orange's Tower Building, working on science projects.

One group — all eighth-graders — was busy dissecting owl pellets as part of a forensic class.

These junior detectives were busy examining the indigestible stomach contents, which owls spit up, to find out what they've been dining on. "It's nasty, but it's fun," said Jennifer Judge, 13, who attends Heritage Middle School.

Jennifer said she'd wanted to be a veterinarian, but decided that taking blood samples from pets also would be "nasty." She's also interested in teaching, but noted that "kids can be rude."

Either way, the free STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program is helping kids become college- and career ready.

Byron Menegazzo, 14, said he was excited someone from the FBI was coming to speak to the class later this week; it's the career he'd like to pursue.

The summer program, done in collaboration with SUNY Orange, is paid for by a five-year grant from the state's Liberty Partnerships Program. It's designed to help address New York's dropout rate — and in Newburgh, the program appears to be working.

"We know that we've been successful because 98 percent of our students graduate and 93 percent go on to college," said Ramona Burton, director of the SUNY Orange for Youth Department.

In fact, Burton said, the 7-year-old summer program is so successful plans are in the works to have an after-school math and science program at the college beginning this fall.

The after-school venture likely will start with about 35 kids.

Burton said she would like to see the Newburgh school district and local employers help by kicking in some money for the program, but with the district in financial crisis, it's not clear if any money is available.

The three-week summer program also offered a course on the human body, where kids dissected pig hearts.

In another course, this one on technology, kids made wind turbines.

Nestor Luis, 12, of Heritage Middle School, looked surprised and happy when he got his wind turbine to work.

"I thought it might work, but I was really surprised that it would work this well," he said.